The Dark Rigidity of Fundamentalist Rural America

Education would be the solution if it weren't for the fact they oppose it so. So the best bet would be to simply cut them off and let them have their
backwards timeless little utopias, and let them wither away

originally posted by: Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
a reply to: JohnnyCanuck
Education would be the solution if it weren't for the fact they oppose it so. So the best bet would be to simply cut them off and let them have their
backwards timeless little utopias, and let them wither away

Tough to reconcile that with the current POTUS...they seem to have won this round!

Great read, and one I think hits the nail on the head. All these liberals, after the election, wringing their hands, whining about how they failed to
understand "flyover America". They are as Naieve and ignorant about "flyover America" as flyover Americans are ignorant of life, the universe, and
everything. Ignorance abounds.

Hey, thanks for taking the time to add a comprehensive response. I'm one of those Liberals that you are busy schooling, and while I don't agree with
everything you say, there's food for thought there.

And the contradictions that you cite really add context to the polarisation in society today. Education is a remedy, but that's a generational process
unless you engineer a 'Cultural Revolution'...and those rarely go well. Interesting how PBS and NPR are taking hits in the latest budget, though they
amount to chickenfeed in the larger scheme of things. They do provide enlightenment to the masses, and for many in the power structure...that's a
threat.

On a personal note, I just want to add that I know a lot of good people define their moral compass through their faith, and that's just fine. I also
know that a lot of people drape their bad intentions in religion. That's why blind faith has no place in government.

Education would be the solution if it weren't for the fact they oppose it so. So the best bet would be to simply cut them off and let them have their
backwards timeless little utopias, and let them wither away

I don't think education can fix the problem. People have to want to learn in the first place. If they don't want to learn, or are opposed to what
you say, it will all be dismissed.

You have to go a step further and produce ideological tv shows to convert people.

originally posted by: Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
a reply to: JohnnyCanuck
Education would be the solution if it weren't for the fact they oppose it so. So the best bet would be to simply cut them off and let them have their
backwards timeless little utopias, and let them wither away

Tough to reconcile that with the current POTUS...they seem to have won this round!

For the short term, yes, Idiocracy has won the day, and the rule of stupid is the law of the land. But I'm not a short term thinker, I think of the
long term. For the long term, we are talking beyond administrations, though.

If the liberals were smart, they would give the rubes everything they want. No more ebil federal gubmint comming in and telling them what to do. Pull
out federal funding, assistance, intervention, and leave them be. No more education, federal assistance, medical aid, all these are evil institutions
of liberal dominion. Liberals actually shoot themselves in the face by all the wasted outreach and funding efforts towards sustaining and the survival
of communities and cultures that would turn around and stab them in the face. They tried this crap with Muslims in Europe, and look where it got them.
White conservative Christians are similar. Liberals have this naieve pollyanna view that everyone can get along, that everyone is good deep down and
want the same things. It's patronizing, deluded, and is part of the reason liberals are falling apart and viewed as weak.

One does not have to wage all out war, or even behave aggressively towards adversaries. You simply stop feeding them, supporting them, or believing
the myth that common ground exists, despite clear and repeated evidence that no such reconciliation is possible, or even desirable, and you leave them
to their own devices while remaining vigilant.
The conservatives, at least, got that idea right.

Conservative Xtians are not all fundamentalists. They all draw moral guidance from the bible and other sources but they are not all fundamentalists.
I have known European Moslems for over fifty years. This wave of violent fundamentalism is very new in comparison.

A lot of people think that this thread is about Xtian - bashing. Such people seem to have difficulty reading. The article actually discusses
fundamentalist thinking in the rural areas. All that I argue is that Fundamentalism is fundamentalism and can be the basis for religious violence as
seem in Northern Ireland!

originally posted by: Tiger5
A lot of people think that this thread is about Xtian - bashing. Such people seem to have difficulty reading. The article actually discusses
fundamentalist thinking in the rural areas.

Funny thing...I just got back from a funeral service conducted in our small Ontario town. This was in a United Church...largest Protestant
denomination in Canada.

Flags hung from either side of the apse. One, our Maple Leaf, the other a rainbow. I could not help but think of this thread.

A read through the following article sheds light on two things, how America got this way and why ruling powers would want to align themselves with
religious fundamentalists. As in other countries at other times, we did the same here.

The article is from 1980 but very prophetic. The author downplays the warning, but only because he could not foresee the rises in satellite
communications, political right wing extremist media, and religious broadcasting. And, of course, the internet's instancy of communication would speed
the unthinkable forward. These IMO helped overcome any "correctives" that the author wrote could blunt this political-religious alignment.

there is the common emphasis on otherworldly salvation for individual souls, with no corresponding emphasis on the social conditions that
oppress and distort those souls and with no concern for justice in this world. Larger structural social problems, it is felt, can wait for the
Second Coming. [one example, pollution is ok, because Jesus is coming soon to remake the world]

Another emphasis is the notion that divine providence supports the dominant powers in society and sanctions the alliance of the church with those
powers. For centuries the idea of the "divine right of kings" was dominant; eventually there evolved the belief, common among 19th century
Protestants, that divine providence was to be identified with the laws and practices of a free-enterprise economy. This latter teaching characterizes
the religious right of today, and the policies of the Reagan administration are based on a secularized version of that belief.

There has also been a one-sided emphasis on sin -- an emphasis that has led many Christians to believe that, though existing conditions may be bad,
a change would probably be worse. Understandably, this doctrine has been popular among those who benefit from the status quo. It is often thought
that change would open the door to control by crude and godless people, perhaps by "secular humanists," perhaps by individuals influenced by some
revolution abroad. ...

Finally, there is an authoritarian tendency in religion which meshes well with authoritarian secular structures and with rigid prescriptions for
living. Jerry Falwell, leader of the Moral Majority, says in his recent book Listen America that "the Bible is absolutely infallible, without
error in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as well as in areas such as geography, science, history, etc." That "etc." is his, and it
covers a lot of ground. I have seen a Falwell quotation that takes back a little of that, but in interviews he has a way of bending.

Not mentioned here, because it had yet to occur, was the bringing together of religious/social "enemies", Catholics and primarily Southern Baptists,
over one issue, abortion. All this helped to grow the Republican Party. However, it helped that party to grow into the extremist distortion that it is
today, with an ideology that takes care of its oligarchs over its base of voters.

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